It's great to eat in a restaraunt without gagging from second-hand smoke

[trumad]

The new smoking ban that was unanamously passed by Florida Citizens is the best thing that ever happened! To actually sit down and enjoy a meal without some inconsiderate smoker blowing smoke in your space is fantastic. No more bleery eyed dining experience for me, my wife and kids. To walk out of a restaruant not smelling like a pile of dog dung is quite refreshing.

Almost every person that I've talked to regarding the ban loves it. That's pretty much because the vast majority of the folks I talk to are clever enough not to poison their lungs and the lungs of those around them.

The only downside to the ban is having to walk past the outside tables filled with smokers and having to look at their wrinkled and unhealthy faces. It does offer a good lesson for my kids because I simply say "look kids" that could be you if your stupid enough to get hooked on cancer sticks!

[Skittles]

1. now if people

can just control their little f***ing brats, *I* could have a good dining experience.

[SiobhanClancy]

27. and their cell phones!

Especially the ones with the creative rings...a couple of those going off at the same time does little to enhance your dining experience.

[slackmaster]

2. Welcome to the Clean Air Club!

A similar ban has been in place in California for about 3 years and I love it.

Kudos to Floridians (and New Yorkers, and ???) for providing smoke-free places to enjoy a meal!

:toast:

[MoonAndSun]

5. I was in LA a couple of weeks ago and I just loved the fact

that whenever I went to a restaurant I was not asked "smoking or non-smoking". They have a ban in Tempe, Arizona and I love going there to eat. I hope they pass one here where I live in Scottsdale.

[LynneSin]

7. Don't forget Delaware

Smoke free for almost a year in our clubs and restaurants and we're loving it here

:bounce:

[radwriter0555]

18. I do too. Even when I smoked it was horrible to be launching into a DELISH

meal and have some cigarette smoke come wafting along.

Nasty habit. Quit last year. Can't stand it at all ever any more.

Take your pollution outside, away from me, away from my house.

I won't rent to smokers.

[DebJ]

3. This heavy smoker agrees

I lived in Howard County Maryland, where such a ban was implemented almost 20 years ago, and at that time I heard that it was the first in the country (or maybe one of the first?).

I can't believe the entire rest of the country hasn't yet done the same.

Can't believe peoples' right to breathe or to not breathe in my horrible addiction doesn't always come first.

GW's environmental policies prove he certainly doesn't believe in the right to breathe! Ha!

[Waistdeep]

4. I used to live in the SF Bay area

and I can't remember when I last saw smoking in a restaurant.

[Demobrat]

6. What I love

is being able to walk into a bar, sit down and have a glass of wine and a nice chat with a friend. Couldn't do that before because my throat would close up and I'd start to choke.

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. yay!

not!

How about just enacting a law that said all places must have smoking and non-smoking sections. And the smoking sections have to be cordoned off from the rest of the place.

Problem solved.

But noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

That's not good enough for some non-smokers, who probably won't be happy until they get to control the behavior of everyone who dares do something harmful to themselves.

A pox on your healthy lungs, sayeth I.

*grumble, grumble*

:)

[Demobrat]

9. Small restaurants can't really do that.

But the smokers I know don't mind stepping outside for a smoke.

[LynneSin]

12. How about we just force smokers to wear helmets over their heads

when they smoke so only they have to breath their smoke.

:shrug:

[THUNDER HANDS]

14. or...

Non-smokers can go build their own resturants and bars?

Or maybe, hey, smokers can have just exclusive SMOKING-ONLY places.

Or maybe...we can criminalize tobacco and just come to some finality on this issue.

It's really annoying that something can be legal, and yet banned from certain places.

I mean, come on. It's a bar. You're there to drink and get fucked up. Why should smokers not be able to enjoy themselves, even in their own cordoned off area?

[LynneSin]

31. It's called Evolution - Survival of the Fittest

Bars and Restaurants in Delaware are adapting just fine in the Wilmington Area. Many have outdoor decks with heaters and some of them even have an outdoor bar opened all year round.

People love the law in Delaware. Those bars and restaurants that don't learn to adapt in an ever changing environment will never survive - smoking ban or not.

[Bronco69]

10. I don't like to smoke in restaurants anyway

but bars are a different story. I love to smoke when I'm having a drink.

[DoNotRefill]

11. And you plan to die from....????

Hopefully it'll not be quick...

If you don't like looking at our "wrinkled and unhealthy faces", fine, let us know in person. I'm sure somebody will show you their wrinkled and unhealthy ass for kissing purposes.

[Skittles]

24. UM

it is quite apparent to me that the SUN gives you more wrinkles than SMOKING does

[LynneSin]

13. BTW - 86% of the people surveyed in Delaware support the non-smoking ban

http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/updates/SurveyMostsuppo.html

Survey: Most support secondhand smoke protections

By LAURA UNGAR
Staff reporter
11/6/2003

A state survey released today showed that 86 percent of Delawareans think people should be protected from secondhand smoke, as called for in Delaware’s year-old indoor smoking ban.

The survey, conducted by the University of Delaware for the state Division of Public Health, was administered in the spring to 1,147 adult residents, both smokers and nonsmokers. It also found that a greater percentage of adults were more likely to dine at local restaurants, go out to bars and visit casinos now that the Clean Indoor Air Act is in effect.

For example, 28 percent of respondents said they were more likely to dine at local restaurants, while 9 percent said they were less likely; and 15 percent said they were more likely to visit bars, while 11 percent said they were less likely.

<<<more>>>>

And yes, at the bottom smokers say they would go to the bars & restaurants less - but then again they make up about 20-25% of the state.

[THUNDER HANDS]

15. I learned a term for this in poly sci 101

It's called "Tyranny of the Majority"

:)

(of course, Lynne, I know why you have an anti-smoking crusade. I'm just in the final stages of my smoking life. I'm planning on quitting soon and kinda cranky.)

:hi:

[LynneSin]

32. When you quit, I'll be your #1 supporter

:pals:

Think of the money you'll save with the price of smokes in NYC area.

And anyhow, we want your ass around for a long long long time helping out the progressive cause!!

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

I love the NY state law

It's sooo much nicer to go out and actually be able to breathe!

[LadeJarl]

16. When are you going to

start complaining about the pollution from cars?
They actually are more dangerous to you than second hand smoke and you inhale whenever you are outdoors.

Most non-smokers are too inconsistent, they only complain about cigarette smoke when there are far worse flumes in the air around you. Go figure!

[Sick of Bullshit]

23. You must be kidding

We're talking concentrations here. Cigarette smoke contains at least 20 known carcinogens, which in a closed space can become concentrated very quickly. I grew up in a smoking household, and I had asthma as a kid. Once I got out of that environment, I never had a problem with asthma, although I still have some breathing-related issues.

By your reasoning, since the local creek is dirty, you shouldn't mind having tap water that is dirty as well.

One more thing: People have complained about automobile exhaust, and gotten results. That's why gasoline no longer contains lead, and why all new cars come with catalytic converters.

[kyrasdad]

17. Clean Air Act

I smoke. There I said it. I love nothing more than lighting up on of my Salem Slim Light 100's in the box and dragging away. I'm smoking right now as I type. Guess what? I hate smoke in a restaurant too. I smoke with the window open in the car. I don't smoke around my parents who decided to quit. I never smoke in anyone else's home, even if they say it's OK. Not all smokers are inconsiderate, just like most non-smokers aren't offended by looking at wrinkled and unhealthy faces, no matter what the cause.

I spend over 1600 bucks a year more than non-smokers on just the taxes on my cigarettes. I choose to smoke, so I accept that. If every smoker quit smoking today, guess what your state budget would look like tomorrow.

So while people may not like it, the great outdoors so far is a place where smokers and non-smokers alike can frolic and play. I'm sure, however, that in the years to come, if some people have their way that will change too.

[Character Assassin]

19. It's great that you have a fully developed sense of self-righteousness

The new smoking ban that was unanamously passed by Florida Citizens is the best thing that ever happened! To actually sit down and enjoy a meal without some inconsiderate smoker blowing smoke in your space is fantastic.

Golly, that's super. Enacting legislation sure is easier than actually chosing an establishment that doesn't allow smoking and seeks to attract those kind of patrons.

No more bleery eyed dining experience for me, my wife and kids. To walk out of a restaruant not smelling like a pile of dog dung is quite refreshing.

See above.

Almost every person that I've talked to regarding the ban loves it. That's pretty much because the vast majority of the folks I talk to are clever enough not to poison their lungs and the lungs of those around them.

Irrelevant to the subject of smoking being legally permissible in dining establishements.

The only downside to the ban is having to walk past the outside tables filled with smokers and having to look at their wrinkled and unhealthy faces. It does offer a good lesson for my kids because I simply say "look kids" that could be you if your stupid enough to get hooked on cancer sticks!

Oh, you poor, poor thing. To think that your opportunities to hold forth like some revivalist tent preacher against the evils of freedom of association and choice have been truncated by the ban, limiting you to only the outside of buildings.

[jono]

20. Restaurants are one thing, bars are another.

I smoke and have no problem with banning smoking in restaurants. But I don't support any proposal that doesn't have an exemption for bars.

[SiobhanClancy]

26. I agree....

and I don't know of any reason a bar owner couldn't designate his establishment "no smoking" if he chose to.

[murphymom]

21. Second hand smoke for the staff

Another point about smoking bans:

The non-smoker in a bar or restaurant is exposed to smoke for the short time they are there, but the waitstaff and workers get it their whole shift, every day.

I'm sympathetic to a certain extent to smokers, it is an addiction after all, but I don't think restaurant policy should be at the expense of the workers.

[Interrobang]

22. Yup yup yup, agree 100%.

I've lived in 3 places now that have gone "public venue smoke-free" while I've been living there (Waterloo Region, Toronto, and London), and I think it's great. Since I don't go to bars, I don't care if people smoke in there, but I wouldn't want to be one of the staff. The only thing I don't like about it is that now the smokers cluster around the doors so you have to get well and truly fumigated while going in and out. Also, it reduces Worker's Compensation claims, which is an all-'round good thing for everyone -- saves on tax bills, and is good for the employees (and the employers!).

[Loonman]

25. More power to you, glad you benefit

Just quit the damn gloating and preaching.

[Bertha Venation]

28. my favorite bumper sticker was borne of such a law

Seen in Reno, NV, about a year after CA's statewide ban was enacted:

Welcome to Nevada
California's Designated Smoking Area

[everythingsxen]

29. YES IT SO AWESOME!

It's so awesome.. I quit smoking! Huzzah huzzah!

Before you get happy about it, I quit for myself, not for that idiotic law.

I only pray every other smoker does the same though. I would so enjoy watching Florida go bankrupt overnight without cigarette revenue.

I know you think it's your moral duty or something to force smokers to not smoke, however.. I'd like to point out someone else who was a strong advocate of non-smoking. That's right.. Hitler. :P

And IMO its only the cigarette companies who poison smokers by soaking their sticks in every toxin known to man.

I don't actually think tobacco is all that bad by itself. It's just the crap the companies put on it.

[jobycom]

30. Austin's on that list

Spoils you after a while. When I travel and have to answer "Smoking or none," I feel like I've stumbled into a bad part of the universe.